Netflix, Hulu Banned for Hawaii State Employees

16 Aug 2015

The Hawaii state government has eliminated access to video streaming services featuring entertainment for its employees.

No more Netflix, no more Hulu, no more whiling away the hours on the taxpayer dime while watching “House of Cards” or “Orange Is the New Black.” Employees watched between 100-300 hours on Netflix from July 28-August 4, according to Hawaii News Now, quoting the state Office of Information Management and Technology.

Chief Information Officer Todd Nacapuy issued a memo to other government officials stating, “In order to preserve sufficient online access for state business, we will be immediately blocking video streaming services,” according to WFSB. CivilBeat reported Nacapuy also stated, “The state has finite IT resources, and increasing these resources requires an investment.”

The quantity of Netflix viewing in the week under discussion was roughly the equivalent of 2-9 full-time employees watching TV for the full 40-hour work week.

One IT consultant said, “And when you have over 60,000 employees, like this state, you really want to look at how much of your bandwidth is being used by these services.”

Although the entertainment viewing will be cut, the employees may still watch Youtube, Adobe Flash Media, and similar media sites because they can be used for job-related purposes. Employees who have watched video streaming entertainment will not be punished.